


Hal from Maintenance, or Small Talk chapter 23

by RainbowObsidian



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Allison has roped Andrew into an impossible bet and he's nailing it, Gen, M/M, Multi, POV Kevin Day, Small Talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 18:55:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28925406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainbowObsidian/pseuds/RainbowObsidian
Summary: Kevin helps Nicky with a plumbing disaster, and Andrew meets someone new.***Chapter 23 ofSmall Talkby the glorious Likearecordplayer.
Relationships: Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 4
Kudos: 35





	Hal from Maintenance, or Small Talk chapter 23

**Author's Note:**

  * For [likearecord](https://archiveofourown.org/users/likearecord/gifts).



> If you have somehow missed the wonder that is [Small Talk](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28468065), please head over and read it now. You can dip in and out, reading a day here and there or you can start from the beginning. Whatever you do, just go get your feet wet.

Kevin toes off his shoes and closes the door, sliding down the cool veneer to land with his legs splayed out in front of him. He’s tired. The dorm is blessedly empty; Andrew and Neil have classes for another couple of hours and he has nowhere he needs to be and no energy to get there even if he did. He rubs his face vigorously with both hands in an attempt to rouse himself and then groans. God he hopes he isn’t coming down with something. He doesn’t feel… viral, exactly… just a bit ordinary. Maybe Dan is right and they should build up the late night practices slowly; they’ve been going hard since they returned after Christmas. Alarmed, he brings one palm to his forehead to check for a fever - there’s no other reason he would entertain that thought.

He doesn’t have a fever.

He thinks back over the last week and decides his fatigue must be a combination of extra sessions on top of regular training, poor sleep and the fact that they ate and drank more like students and less like athletes while they were in Columbia. Garden variety exhaustion.

He drags himself up, pulls out a couple of textbooks and heads over to his desk. May as well get some work done while he waits for Neil to get back so they can watch the Bearcats game from last weekend before practice tonight. He reads the same paragraph several times and eventually pushes the book aside so he can lay his head on the desk, just for a minute or three.

Kevin is startled awake by banging on the wall that joins their room to Aaron, Nicky and Matt’s. He fumbles for his phone to see what time it is and is further assaulted by three more knocks, slower this time. Three more thumps, and - did he just get SOSed? He thinks about texting Nicky to tell him to shut the fuck up (noone else would make such a racket) and decides to take the low road and hit the wall in retaliation instead.

“Kevin?” he hears through the wall, and though it’s muffled, there’s no doubt it’s Nicky. He ignores him. The knocks come again, three sharp, short thumps, three drawn out, three in quick succession. He’s definitely being summoned. “Kevin!”

Kevin pushes away from the desk and swipes his keys as he stalks out of the room. Nicky’s door is wide open of course, and he’s just about to give him a piece of his mind when he rounds the corner to the kitchen and sees Nicky in front of the sink. He’s sopping wet from head to toe, trying desperately to stem the flow of water from the tap spout, and by the looks of things, failing miserably. The handle is redundant on the bench beside him and water is pooled over the bench and on the floor at his feet.

“Oh thank fuck, Kevin, what took you so long?” Nicky wails. “I SOSed you!”

“What are you doing?” he asks, bewildered, amused, and suddenly awake.

“What does it look like, asshole? I’m trying to stop the flow before the entire dorm floods. Do you have your phone? We need to call maintenance.” Kevin shakes his head. “Here - grab mine,” he says, pointing his ass in Kevin’s direction “- it’s in my pocket.”

“I’m not sticking my hand in your pocket Nicky, let go of the tap.”

“But -” he lets go and lets out a soft _oh_ when the water starts pouring down the sink instead of spraying out all over the benchtop now that the pressure from his hands has been removed. Kevin grabs a towel from the hamper of clean laundry on the sofa and throws it at Nicky.

“Give me your phone you idiot, and I’ll call maintenance,” he says, shaking his head. “What on earth prompted you to stick your hand under the tap like that?” He dials campus switch and asks to be put through to the plumber.

“Oh my god, I _am_ an idiot,” Nicky says, voice muffled under the towel as he scrubs it over his face and through his hair. “I turned the tap on to wash my hands, and the whole handle just fell off in my hand. Water gushed out hard - I must have cranked it right up - and I just - my brain just told me to stop the flow. I’ve been standing here for ten minutes making everything way worse than it would have been if I’d just let go.”

Kevin rolls his eyes and laughs at Nicky, then shoves him out of the way so he can squat down in front of the sink to open the cupboards and look at the pipes, figuring there must be a main tap under here somewhere. He gives the dorm number to maintenance when the call is connected and follows their instructions for turning off the water supply to the kitchen, then stands to face Nicky.

“They’ll be here in half an hour. Come on, loser,” he says fondly, peeling off his now soggy socks. “I’ll help you clean up this mess.”

They use all of the dry towels from the hamper, and raid Aaron’s stash so they can finish cleaning up, and then, because they still have ten minutes, run the towels down to the student laundry. He’s first out of the stairwell when they reach their floor and stops so suddenly that Nicky crashes into his back, pushing him forward a few more steps.

The door to his dorm is open.

It’s possible Neil or Andrew have come back early but he’s never known either of them to leave the door _unlocked_ , let alone wide open for anyone to walk in.

He hears Andrew’s muted voice coming from inside, and though he’s still too far away to make out what he’s saying he thinks he hears a laugh. It’s not one he recognises.

Nicky, wide eyed, sidles up to Kevin. “Maybe Neil invited someone over to study?” he says, though he doesn’t look like he believes it anymore than Kevin does.

Kevin clears his throat as he reaches the door, and then walks inside. Andrew is leaning against the desk chatting with -

“Kevin, this is Hal.”

Kevin takes in Hal’s navy blue uniform and steel capped boots. He has a PSU lanyard around his neck attached to an ID card that says MAINTENANCE. He’s holding a glass of water. Kevin’s eyes widen a moment as he looks - alarmingly - to Andrew then back to Hal, and checks for obvious signs of injury. If anything, Hal looks amused.

“Hal was in our room when I got back from class,” Andrew says, around a mouthful of ice cream that he’s eating directly from the tub. He tilts his head at Kevin and raises an eyebrow.

“Erm,” Kevin begins, “sorry. I must have told you the wrong dorm?”

He looks to Andrew now and even though he’s eating ice cream, and he doesn’t _look_ particularly angry, even though he isn’t pulling a knife - or spoon - on anyone yet, it’s only a matter of time because Andrew never looks _anything_ and fuck, Kevin needs to do something, say something, try to make amends. “Andrew I’m really sorry, I must have given him the wrong room number.”

“So you said,” Andrew responds, casting a bored glance over at Nicky, still soggy, and standing in the open doorway watching in a kind of wide-eyed wonder meets horrific car crash. “Imagine my surprise when I came back from class early and there was a man in our dorm.”

Instead of looking sheepish, Hal grins and hooks his free thumb in his belt loop, then gives Kevin a wink. “Campus regulations state we can access dorms if a task has been logged, so long as we leave the door open while we’re here. For transparency, you see?” Kevin feels like an idiot now and not just for the mixup but because he’s trying to figure out why Hal looks… delighted. And _… alive_. How anyone who was found by Andrew Minyard in his dorm room uninvited could look anything other than terrified or dead is a mystery.

“Apparently we have a leak,” Andrew says, toasting his Ben & Jerry’s towards Hal. The plumber raises his glass in return.

“Like I said -” Kevin starts.

“Oh, don’t apologise!” Hal grins. “Your roommate here has been telling me his favourite plumbing jokes!”

“He’s… what?” Kevin asks noone in particular, and wonders for a moment if this is a fever dream after all.

“And in return, Hal has been telling me about plumbing in ancient Egypt,” Andrew says, sounding about as interested as he usually does. “Anyway, judging by the look of the drowned fox in the corner, I suspect you’re needed next door.”

At this, Nicky turns on his heels and Kevin can hear him squelching down the hall to open his door.

“Thanks again for the water,” Hal says, putting his glass in the sink and making his way to leave. “Do you think he’ll mind if I use his facilities while I’m there? You’ve already been more than hospitable.”

“You know what they say, Hal,” Andrew deadpans. “Plumbing is the only profession where you get to take a leak and fix one at the same time.”


End file.
